Sustainable Energy for Food Symposium

Sustainable Energy for Food

According to conservative estimates, producing food and getting it to the table accounts for around 30 per cent of energy consumed worldwide. With the demand for food on the increase and energy re-sources in limited supply, experts in science, business, civil society and development cooperation who work in the energy and/or food sector all face the same challenge: how can we produce more food using as little energy as possible while increasing the share of renewable energy? This GIZ-DIE symposium will show where the various stakeholders currently stand on this issue. It will also examine which energy-smart solutions exist in our agri-food systems and debate how to accelerate their broad-based roll-out.

Program

​​► Download the program here

Documentation

​​► For presentations please click on the respective session highlighted in blue.

8:30-9:00	Welcome/registration
9:00-9:30	Event opened by Dr Stefan Schmitz Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Head of special initiative "One World, No Hunger" Dr. Stefan Schmitz, welcomed the participants and highlighted the many interdependencies of energy and food. Energy access is crucial to decrease the number of currently 840 million starving people. For example, energy is crucial to reduce food losses along food supply and value chains. Keynote: Energy for food Dr Tilman Altenburg Head of Department “Sustainable Economic and Social Development”, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) Dr. Tilman Altenburg explained the relevance of the theme and mapped out the challenges ahead. He stressed the significance of energy access in the food production sector and the fight against poverty, illustrated by the following figures: 1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity; 3 billion depend on biomass energy for cooking and heating, whilst food production in Africa has not seen any increases for the last 40 years. Meanwhile, food production consumes 30% of global energy.
9:30-10:30	Energy needs and solutions for sustainability food security The first presentations of the day focused on energy needs and solutions for sustainable food security: Dr. Michael Brüntrup, Researcher, Department “Sustainable Economic and Social Development Department”, DIE, presented on “Energy needs in agricultural value chains for improving food security”. Uwe R. Fritsche, Scientific Director, International Institute for Sustainability Analysis and Strategy (IINAS) gave a presentation on “Energy supply for a sustainable and viable food industry”
10:30-11:00	Break
11:00-12:00	Experience of pratical implementation The second part of the presentations provided insights into experience of practical implementation: Prof. Peter Heck, Managing Director, Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS), held a presentation on “Technology management and innovation in regional energy supply”. Stefan Pletziger, Regional Manager, 4 mitten im Sauerland (4 in the middle of Sauerland) presented on “Reorganising the energy industry and supporting the food industry – features of regional development, taking the LEADER region Sauerland”
12:00-12:15	Brief reflection on morning events by organizers Christel Weller-Molongua, Director of Division “Rural Development and Agriculture”, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Dr Tilman Altenburg, Head of Department “Sustainable Economic and Social Development”, DIE Thee two reflected on the various presentations citing the availability of many good technical solutions to solve issues at stake. The challenges lie on adjusting and successful dissemination of solutions and context-specific adaptation, plus a systemic approach to complex requirement of target systems
12:15-13:15	Break
13:15-14:30	Powering agriculture - an energy grand challenge for development Two presentations stressed the fact that the topic of energy and food is now firmly on the international cooperation agenda: Jeremy Foster, Programme Analyst Energy & Environmental Policy, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), presented on "Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development (PAEGC) – Context, relevance, approach, and project example". Maria Weitz, Project Manager for Powering Agriculture, GIZ, held a presentation on “The Powering Agriculture network and wiki portal”
14:15-14:30	Participants make their way to the room assigned to their working groups Three parallel working groups provided the chance to work on specific aspects in depth, and thereby facilitated exchange and discussion among the participants:
14:45-16:30	Working group I: Cooperation with the private sector, moderated by Judith Helfmann-Hundack (GIZ) Tobias Cossen, Advisor for the Project Development Programme, GIZ, presented on “Cooperation with business associations and companies – the Project Development Programme within the Renewable Energies Export Initiative” Klaus Gihr, Competence Centre “Energy, Water and Agriculture”, KfW Development Bank presented on “Energy for agriculture / financing the food industry” Charlie Moosmann, Advisor “Powering Agriculture – Sustainable Energy for Food“, GIZ, presented on “Public Private Partnership using the example of the PPP Energy efficiency in the tea value chain“ Followed by a panel discussion and plenary session
14:45-16:30	Working group II: Energy efficiency - a potential gain for agro-industries, moderated by Dr Anna Pegels (DIE): Torsten Fritsche, Project Manager “Cooperation with EU member states to further develop an enabling environment for renewable energies in Europe”, GIZ gave a presentation on ”Energy supply for small and medium-sized enterprises in agro-processing – experiences from Thailand” Dr Babette Never, Researcher, Department “Sustainable Economic and Social Development”, DIE, presented on “Determining factors for incorporating energy-related innovation in small and medium-sized enterprise operations” Plenary session to develop solutions and ideas for cooperation
14:45-16:30	Working group III: Optimising agricultural irrigation from an energy perspectiv, moderated by Bernhard Zymla, (GIZ) Dr Rolf Posorski, Senior Planning Officer, Competence Centre “Energy”, GIZ, presented on “The potential and challenges of solar-powered pumping systems – experience to date” Karina Rita Boers, PPP Advisor “Agriculture water productivity for climate change adaptation”, GIZ Egypt gave a presentation on “Solar-powered pumping systems – challenges and solutions for market entry in the case of Egypt” Each working group presented a brief summary of their results. For the pictures of the flipcharts please see here.
16:45-17:00	Brief reports of the working groups Closing remarks by Dr Stefan Schmitz BMZ, Head of special unit "One World, No Hunger" Dr. Schmitz in his closing remarks emphasised on communication, restating the importance to develop and support a network of international actors within the clean energy and agriculture nexus.